More M&M's this time around, because Cathy isn't here to eat them all:
The Princess Anna Valerious- Yes, it was somewhat of a rollercoaster.
Believe me, Cathy didn't like the kiss as much. I believe she was still brushing her teeth when the chapter ended and she disappeared.
HyperCaz- Long time no see!
I like that quote about poetic license... I shall ponder it at school today!
HughJackmanFan- I'm glad you enjoyed the first couple chapters... they were fun to write!
kydasam- Yea, it's hard for things to work out well when Cathy is involved! Aren't you going to miss her helping with the review responses..?
This is dedicated to Katze- here's to hoping we get into camp! And to Anna, who promised to let me off the hook on something if I wrote this... so thank her for the update.
I do believe the title of this chapter is taken from an Evanescence song.
Chapter 11:
Lie to Me
Carl was nervous. No, he was petrified. No, he was a pile of utterly terrified goo masquerading as a human. Or, masquerading as a ghost who was also masquerading as a human.
Oh, hell.
You see, Carl had been a bad Friar. He hadn't been laying any barmaids lately. He had been cursing a lot, but that was beside the point. Actually, it was connected to the point.
Carl had been wrong.
He had told Anna and Van Helsing that a key was needed for Chaos to escape her prison. That implied something physical. They hadn't know that prison and key were walking around in front of them the whole time in the form of a spunky, sarcastic, short, somewhat insane vampire named Cathy.
And now because he had told them that, he got to tell Anna Valerious exactly where her fiance was at the moment.
He found Anna in a tavern, alone. It was one of those lonely taverns, where all of the patrons have gone home early but one person has been left alone. The bartender doesn't speak to them, but, then, they don't want the words. They have a reason to drink and money to pay and that's all that matters.
He didn't want to go alarming innocent bartenders, so Carl knocked over Anna's drink instead. She swore and tried to mop it up, then froze when she heard a familiar voice in her ear.
"Come outside." She paid for the drink, and obeyed the voice. Carl revealed himself in the moonlight.
"What are you doing here?" She asked. She sounded tired. Carl wanted her to be irritated. He wanted Anna, who would still threaten him in any number of ways when he got too annoying, who would insult him until the cows came home.
"I have news." He said, his voice trembling. Damn, he hadn't wanted it to tremble.
Something passed over Anna's face. Like a cloud over the moon, only much faster. There was something in her eyes now, the look of a warrior who knows they are going to die but still asks if there's hope.
"Lie to me, Carl." She whispered. Now she was a child, wanting to know that the monsters under the bed weren't real. "Tell me Gabriel is fine." Carl shook his head no, biting his incorporeal lip. He could still feel the tears though. God, he was dead, and he could still feel.
Oh, hell.
The library in the Valerious manor felt very empty without Gabriel and, strangely, Cathy in it. Last time Carl had sat them down to talk about Chaos, they had all been there. Now it was just he and Anna.
"I found an account that clarifies the part of the legend that wasn't clear before." He began. "About how Chaos could get free. A prophecy was made by her followers that, millennia after her demise, an heir would be born and Chaos would come again. The heir would be female. Her birthday would be November 25 and she would be named after the saint of that day: Catherine, the martyr saint. She would have the gold eyes that Chaos once had. Once she lost her soul, she would be doomed never to regain it. She and Chaos would be of one body, but, as a countering prophecy said, of warring natures.
"Catherine would not be a zealot, not be a follower of Chaos's cause. She would fight her every step of the way. She would hold in her hands the power to damn the world and the power to save it... but only in death. She and Chaos would never be parted. Kill one, destroy the other. This is the balance that must be struck. This is the price that must be paid." After a moment, Anna spoke.
"So all this time Cathy had Chaos inside of her." Carl nodded.
"That was why the vampire she killed said he would rather have no one else kill her. That's probably why that man in the tavern claimed Cathy killed his brother too. Chaos can take over Cathy's mind if she lets her guard down or is in trauma of some sort, physical or mental. She's probably been doing that frequently now, gathering her followers and laying plans under the guise of someone innocent. However, the ultimate power lies in Cathy's hands.
"Unless through magical aid, Chaos cannot slip Cathy's skin and assume her own form unless Cathy surrenders herself completely. Then she will be the voice whispering in Chaos's head, trying to control her body. It's unlikely that Cathy could ever go back to her own form again after succumbing to Chaos entirely, though."
"And that's what has happened." Anna sighed. "Chaos thought Gabriel could stand in her way, so she sent him into Hell. To stop me from protecting him, she sent me away. That was Chaos kissing Gabriel, not Cathy." She closed her eyes but didn't hang her head. She would never hang her head. "I've been a fool."
"We're up against a goddess." Carl said kindly. "It's hard not to feel that way."
"And she's doubly immortal!" Anna cursed, suddenly on her feet. "Not only is she a goddess, if we tried to kill her we'd be killing her before she was born!" She was remembering the principle Carl had come up with when he and Gabriel went back in time to stop Dracula a year ago.
"For a being like Chaos, it might not be true." Carl said.
"What do you mean?"
"Deities are timeless beings. They exist in past, present and future. Therefore, we wouldn't be killing her before she was born, because thereis no before." Carl said calmly, logically. Logic is the murderer of hope. "She has always existed, and always will."
"Not if I have something to say about it." Anna left the library and left Carl to scuttle to catch up.
"We're taking as many weapons as we can carry, as many books as we can carry. We're going to find her. We're going to find out how to kill her. We're going to do it."
"What about Gabriel?" What about the wedding? Carl almost asked. Anna could see the words in his eyes when she turned to him.
"I will see him again." Anna whispered. She said the words like all words are meant to be said: with meaning, with passion. They weren't idle words, they were words she believed in totally and completely. They both believed them, because they'd both been there.
They packed all the weapons and books they could carry. They set off. They were going to find Chaos. They were going to find a way to kill her. They were going to do it.
Part of Carl thought that was a lie. Part of him wished that hecould lie to Anna.
Hell was decidedly hotter than Gabriel had imagined. It was actually rather cool, rather like being in a dungeon. It looked like a dungeon too.
The room was a perfect rectangle, and smelled faintly of jasmine and oil. There was a pool with water lilies floating in it before the steps leading to the dais. On the dais itself there was a chaise lounge of red brocade.She was lounging there,she of the gold hair and sea-blue eyes. He was chained to the side of her lounge, dressed in what looked like the clothing of an Egyptian slave.She in her Egyptian robes kept smiling at him, like she was wondering what he looked like without what little he had on at the moment.
When the door at the far end of the room Gabriel looked up. He felt like he had just woken up from a very long nap, and had woken up in that way that makes you feel like you don't know when you stopped sleeping, but suddenly you're not anymore. He associated it with the way you woke up from a nightmare.
The problem was that he was still in it.
At the other end of the room another woman was standing. The form had something of a vague familiarity; small but limber, compact but with muscles that allowed her to flow across the floor towards them. The face was Cathy's face, except for the fangs poking out from ruby red lips; she didn't wear makeup and she didn't let her fangs show.
Then again, that wasn't Cathy.
"Greetings." Chaos said with a mocking bow. "How do you like my new costume?" She grinned, waving her arm down the length of her body. She was wearing a bodice of stiff black material with red showing through, a stark contrast to the white skin of her breasts and stomach. A skirt swirled around her as she walked.
"It is so old, so classic." The Wavewriter smiled.
"As is yours." Chaos said with another bow. The Wavewriter giggled and twisted on the chaise lounge, her bare foot coming very close to Gabriel's face. He resisted the urge to spit on it. She flipped around and moved to play with his hair as Chaos spoke again. "I like your new pet, too. Have you kissed him yet? You should try it some time. He's quite good." She laughed. Gabriel snarled at her as much as he was able.
The Wavewriter wrenched his head back with one swift tug to his hair, holding his head so far back it touched his shoulders.
"Well, I see you have a handle on things." Chaos smirked. "Keep him here, do what you like. I just came to make sure he was contained."
"Oh?" The Wavewriter asked with a flirtatious air. "Not for me?"
Chaos laughed. "Soon enough we will live together, all in one dimension. The world is our Troy, and I will be our Trojan horse. I will bring it down from within."
"How?" The Wavewriter asked eagerly, rolling over onto her stomach and watching the other goddess.
"That's the delicious part. I'm going to go find out now. I have to gather some associates, and then we're going tofind the most perfect way."She blew a kiss to Gabriel on her way out. "Cathy sends her regards." For a fleeting moment, Gabriel through he saw a grey-blue form just behind the retreating goddess. She was crouched in shame, hair that was streaked with lighter grey falling in front of her face. When she looked up and met his eyes, they were a startling gold.
Forgive me. She mouthed before she disappeared.
Gabriel began to wonder if the hell he was about to go through would be nothing compared to hers.
"Are you lonely, Van Helsing?" The Wavewriter asked. "Would you like to play?" Then again, he wasn't so sure.
A/N- I know it was short, but it was a filler chapter. Next one should be longer, though I shan't deign to say when it'll be done. Review, bitte!
